I have been a fan of video games since I was a kid. Some of my best childhood memories are me with friends or family having the time of our lives on whatever game we were playing. Some games that stand out to me over the course of my gaming lifetime are Super Smash Bros., NBA Street 2, Street Fighter 3, and Tekken just to name a few.
In the last couple of years, a new genre of game has filled twitch streams and has made adults and 12-year-old kids alike sink hours into. Battle Royale began with PUBG (Player Unknown Battle Grounds) in 2017. The simple concept is that 100 empty handed players skydive from a plane onto one giant island. On the island are tons of weapons that a player can pick up and obtain. As the game goes on, the island area gets smaller and smaller, The winner is the last player alive.
Currently, Fortnite is the most popular game in this genre. Many streamers are able to make hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of streaming the game. However, a new BR game has come to take the crown. Apex Legends looks to be the new game to take the reigns as the BR war continues. What gets my attention is how quickly the landscape for this genre has changed in the last 2 years.
In the past, video games were able to hold onto an audience for years at a time. Games that come to mind for me are Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and NBA 2k. These games were all called the best games in their genres for years before another game took its place. Fast forward to today, and games are now popular for months at best before something else comes out to surpass it.
This change in staying power could be a result of the new generation of kids who love video games. In the past decade, social media became a huge deal. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter really popped off while gen z kids were growing up. Having a massive amount of content at your fingertips will make you eventually get bored easier. I can say that one of the main reasons that multiplayer only games are on the rise and single player games are on the decline is that the core base of video games is changing. Changing to a younger audience who always needs new in order to keep their attention.
